Rifts open on Lakota school board

Oct. 22, 2011

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LIBERTY TWP. - Rifts on the Lakota school board boiled over this week after its veteran president, who is not up for re-election this year, mailed out a letter blaming the board for many of the district’s problems and endorsing other candidates rather than a fellow member.

Another board member, also not on the ballot this year, joined in the criticism.

Lakota Board of Education President Joan Powell said earlier this week that she sent a flyer to “friends” in the 18,300-student district, which covers almost all of Liberty and West Chester townships in Butler County.

The Enquirer obtained the mailer this week from the anti-school tax group “NoLakota.”

In the flyer, Powell – who is not up for re-election to the governing board’s two open seats, wrote: “The past four years have been the toughest of my 14-year tenure on the Lakota board.

“You might presume that is due to the financial and other challenges before us, but it is not. Rather it is being a part of a board that does not work together and in doing so reduces its own effectiveness,” she wrote.

She then goes on to note that “we need a board that does not send mixed messages and that is willing to make the tough calls, regardless of their own personal consequences,” before she endorsed two candidates – former school board member Jamie Green and Julie Shaffer.

Notable by her absence from Powell’s endorsements is fellow board member and incumbent candidate Lynda O’Connor, who is seeking her second term on the five-member board.

Powell later told The Enquirer she is frustrated with “back-door politicking” on the board, which unlike other Lakota boards of recent years has seen in the last 12 months some significant split votes. Powell was elected president in January by a 3-2 vote and the board also split on the same lines when deciding on whether to spend $50,000 to hire a private search firm to help in hiring a new superintendent.

When pressed to specify an example of O’Connor’s alleged actions as a board member, Powell said “I’d rather not comment on Lynda’s behavior.” She then added: “This is about inappropriate behavior that has gone on that makes the board ineffective.”

Powell said she is not trying to quell the normal disagreements all school boards experience, adding “disagreements on issues are absolutely appropriate.”

When asked if her criticisms were directed at any other board member, Powell declined to comment.

Board members Ben Dibble and Paul Lohr, who is not seeking re-election, did not respond to requests for comment.

Fellow school board member Ray Murray joined Powell in singling out O’Connor, who Murray claims falsely portrays herself “as a victim” to other board members and various voting groups ranging from Lakota’s teachers’ union to local groups such as “NoLakota” opposing the district’s tax hike on the Nov. 8 ballot. Lakota voters have not approved an operating levy since 2005.

“I am extremely disappointed in Lynda. I have not been the only one used like a puppet by Lynda. Many others have fallen for that same old line of ’they are picking on me’. It takes about a year to realize that it is all a game that she plays.

“As far as I am concerned Joan has not spoken enough. I may be just one person but I believe she is 100 percent correct,” said Murray.

Public clashes such as this – two sitting board members publicly criticizing an incumbent candidate – are extremely rare among the 63 elected school boards that govern Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky’s public school districts. The stakes are high. The financially troubled but academically top-rated Lakota has not been able to pass a new operating tax since 2005.

“When you look at the challenges the school district has faced in the last couple of years, I believe this board has accomplished a lot. Everyone brings different skills to the table,” said O’Connor. “I respect that the five of us arrive at decisions in different ways.”

“Unfortunately, Joan has made it clear, even in her letter, that to her, open discussion and debate suggest that the board can’t work together. Only unanimous decisions are acceptable,” wrote O’Connor.

“The failure of five out of the last six levies, under the leadership of Joan and Jamie (Green) tells us that we’re not moving in the right direction. A lack of trust has been a fundamental issue in these campaigns. Even Joan admits that a change in direction is necessary. But she and Jamie have led the district’s board and therefore, its direction for the past many years.

“Those who continue to mischaracterize me with unwarranted criticisms are part of a small clique protecting the status quo, ignoring the voices of our community and endangering the education we provide to our students …,” O’Connor wrote.

She also blasts Murray, writing that he has “strayed 180 degrees” from their previously shared commitments of “transparency, open discussion, community engagement and bringing our schools and community together.”

Powell also attempted to change her stance, sending the Enquirer an email contending the earlier comments in her mailer should be viewed as only those of “Joan the citizen” rather than a 14-year veteran and current president of the school board governing Ohio’s seventh largest school system.

Though the mailer includes photos of Powell with her grandchildren, in the seven paragraphs in Powell’s mailer, five reference Lakota’s board or the two candidates she endorses.

She also wrote that her mailer and other comments should not be considered a critique of the governing board she presides over.

“While I refer to situations on the board in my mailer, I think ‘criticizing’ fellow board members is not an accurate description,” wrote Powell.

The board’s next public meeting is 7 p.m. Monday at the district’s central office, 5572 Princeton Road.